Growing Up on the Streets of Philadelphia

ROUGH TIMES IN THE CITY OF BROTHERLY LOVE


“Growing Up on the Streets of Philadelphia” is a story of coming of age in big city America. It chronicles the experiences and adventures of a boy coping with everyday life situations as a member of a working-class family struggling to survive amidst poverty and alcoholism, while never losing hope for a better future. In the backdrop of this urban landscape, it depicts the many challenges and hardships faced along the road to adulthood, eventual success achieved through a mixture of ambition, curiosity and blind luck, supplemented by the guidance and inspiration of the special characters encountered along the way.


The story describes the unique rough and tough Kensington neighborhood, the street-smart kids as both hooligans and entrepreneurs; the immigrant merchants who kept the community afloat; and the gradual climb from destitution to a better life. Principles and values are cultivated, mistakes are made, and victories achieved.


“Growing Up” provides a nostalgic look at big-city life in the not-so-distant past. It opens a window onto unique life-changing experiences, and those ordinary but challenging situations many of us have faced as we passed through those formative years.


“For those who lived during the early Cold War years of big-city America, this book will be a fascinating reminder; for others, it will be a glimpse into an almost forgotten era in one of the United States’ greatest cities.”

----Allen Anderson, author of Memoir of an Alcoholic American Spy

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“This is personal memoir at its very best. Buck’s story of how he went from a shabby home in a factory town to serving in the Army and working for the government is modest and charming. This is the American dream done right”

----Patrick Moffett, author of Fortunate Soldier

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“In a digital world. Jim Buck takes you back to a simpler time when children invented their own fun and success hinged on hard work. A deeply poignant read that serves as a testament to the baby boomer generation.”

----Marie B. Leonarde, author of A Woman’s Worth: My Life, My Struggle